Why you should think about Employee Experience even when you hate your HCM System
A conversation started like this:
Leader: Leadership is really unhappy with our current HCM (Human Capital Management) system. It’s not working for us. Even though we’ve only had it about 2 years we’re already considering switching.
Me: Oh, what’s going on? What isn’t it giving you? What are you using?
Leader: It’s not simplified any processes. We’re not getting the reporting we need. It’s difficult to use so HR is going back to their manual processes. We’re using a leading HCM [fill in any leading HCM these days: Workday, Ultipro, SuccessFactors, Cornerstone, etc.). We’re spending a ton of money on something nobody likes or is using.
Me: What type of experience are you trying to drive? In other words, what’s the purpose of the system and how are you envisioning the employee experience with the system?
Leader: Whoa – we’re not even thinking that far down the road on employee experience. We just want reporting out of the darn thing.
Sound familiar? Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve had almost the exact same conversation with an HR or IT leader. High stakes were put on a new HR system implementation. Implementation was rough (regardless of whether it was with a partner or done internally). It’s clunky. Reporting doesn’t work. We want to switch.
The response around Employee Experience (EX) is also quite similar. There is surprise that something as fluffy as EX should even be considered at that point. That’s a nice to have not an essential. After all, this is a tool to optimize what HR and managers do. Not some auxiliary system or overlay to make things look pretty.
But wait – aren’t HR and managers employees?
Why you should care about EX?
Employee Experience, or EX, is a hot topic these days. You see lots of flashy material about improving EX, making things slick and pretty and connected. Firms are telling leaders they need to consumerized the experience for employees, make technology at work just as seamlessly as technology at home. How could you not want to offer this to your employees?
Yet, flashy EX won’t work unless the technology and data foundation is solid. There won’t be satisfaction with ANY HR system unless there is a clear and concisely communicated vision for the system – beyond capturing data. That’s where Employee Experience comes in.
Yes, the ultimate Employee Experience is a consumarized feel to work that mimics home. What I’ve found is that most companies – large and small – are pretty far from this ideal. Many have spent the significant investment in a modern HR system. This is a great infrastructure investment. Remember, you must have a solid technology foundation. But a system is just a system. It’s up to the humans – leaders and teams – to craft the purpose and vision for the system, then communicate it.
How can you do that?
Have a system vision and mission. This defines the scope of employee experience. If this seems weird for a system, check out my article on “Why it’s not weird to have a Vision and Mission for your HR System” to learn more about why it’s essential to have one. Once you have one, communicate it.
Invest in the team and the program beyond implementation. Empower them to partner with HR, IT/IS and the business. This is what will seed bottom up employee experience innovation, within the scope of the vision. Communicate the purpose and scope for this team to accelerate these on-the-ground partnerships.
Create a roadmap and take small steps on the journey. Roadmap initiatives should align to the vision and the mission. They should put boundaries around how and what improvements to pursue both for overall system health and employee experience. Developing personas is a great way to focus on the right improvements and tell the value story in a relevant way. Regularly share the roadmap with leaders and employees.
Think about Employee Experience in the context of your organization and the current corporate initiatives. This is important to ensure senior leadership and functional leadership are on the same page. EX initiatives become much more risky when where is a gap in awareness and buy in from all senior leaders on EX efforts. The global pandemic has demonstrated that businesses must be agile enough to adapt to huge workforce changes. If EX is already a regular part of executive discussions (outside of just IS/IT), organizations will be better positioned to quickly adapt – either by accelerating in flight initiatives or already knowing what will fit their talent environment.
Remember: everyone, even the HR team, is an employee, a user of the system. Even if the system vision primarily impacts HR, be deliberate in crafting the experience you want HR team members to have.
Then communicate it – especially to leadership – so they know what to expect from the HCM system. After all, your executives are also employees. Seeing EX in action, in bite-sized steps, may help accelerate your overall, aspirational Employee Experience journey.
Join the conversation for this post on LinkedIn to share your thoughts and comments.